There are several various known systems in use for broadcasting advertisements and notifications by various means of communication. There is a great advantage to advertising performed in the voice, which is personally known to the listener, adding credibility to advertising made by means of personal conversation.
This purpose requires systems and a method that will enable broadcasting messages during a conversation through a means of communication, with the message being spoken in the speaker's voice, be it natural or synthetic. Use of this system and method will enable collection of fees from advertisers and providing discounted communication fees to a speaker who provides the voice for broadcasting a message.
A ringback advertising method, system and apparatus are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/014,284 of Ho et al. and is incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
Ho et al.'s application describes methods, systems and apparatus for inserting audible advertisements within a phone call. The advertisements being inserted into the phone calls are prerecorded and played when a call is being made.
Current technologies allow systems to recognize a user's speech, process it and synthesize a speech signal according to predefined algorithms. One example for the use of such technologies can be seen in the iTranslate software sold by Ectaco Inc. of 31-21 31st Street, Long Island City, N.Y., 11106. The iTranslate software receives a user's speech signal, processes it, and outputs an audible translation of the received speech signal.
A method for digitally generating speech with improved prosodic characteristics is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,280,968 by Blass, which is incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.
Blass describes a method in which digitally generating speech with improved prosodic characteristics can include receiving a speech input, determining at least one prosodic characteristic contained within the speech input, and generating a speech output including the prosodic characteristic within the speech output.
None of the prior art devices comprises all of the above characteristics and functions.
There is therefore a need for a system and method for producing and transmitting speech messages during voice conversation over communication networks using user's specific voices, which comprises a combination of all of the above characteristics and functions.